I made this blog originally BEFORE I had caught wind of the whole Derpy fiasco that's been going on. I'm a bit slow like that, with my lack of internet. But what I've seen this morning has caused me to NEED to bring this issue up with all of you, so please read this and take it as seriously as you took the previous one.

First of all, what I would like to point out from the previous post is that a lot of people were surprised, some even disbelieving, that bronies were trolling each other. Well, I'm here to show you some of the nasties that I've seen. I will only show you a link to ONE case, but know there are many more.

Someone showed me a deviant who had been brutally harassed by FiM bronies, because she was friends with an animator of the G1 MLP show. This animator was also brutally assaulted verbally, with threats on his life from hysterical bronies who hate the G1 show. Now, obviously, not everyone is like this. But there is enough bronies out there who are "FiM purist" enough to cause people to have to hide from the social media completely for fear of being threatened, or, worse case, actually harmed.

And finally, to the bulk of my edited post: Derpy Hooves.

I'm sure you all know about what's been going on with the lawsuit against Hasbro for Derpy Hoove's appearances, and that they have changed her. Now, I don't know all the details, but I do know this: Someone on Deviant here, has been blamed for the whole Derpy problem completely, and she has come under fire for it.

I speak, of the deviant Yamino. She has spoken out against Derpy, and she has made it publicly known that she is on the side of the Derpy argument that agrees that she should be changed. But this isn't about her trolling, no. Because she's not. She is not going out of her way to troll, or anything of the sort. Her express opinions are defending people, which is something we should all appreciate. It's about you, the bronies, the pegasisters, the broniettes, whatever you want to call yourselves.

Take a moment to look at Yamino's front comments. Over twenty pages of people screaming at her, because for some reason they assume that the entire thing is her fault alone. This is disgusting. I actually found out about people harassing her from another group's front page, and when I saw it, I was appalled.

Now, let me take a moment away from Yamino's page to tell you all something. I, personally, heavily disagree with Yamino's opinion on Derpy the character, as well as "Derp"/"Herp a Derp" and "Derpy" the memes. I wholeheartedly disagree with her claims on it being an enabling word for mocking the mentally impaired or handicapped.

However, I do not find her to be wrong as a person. I do not find her opinion insulting to me, my way of life or how I see Derpy the character. I do not think that she is to blame for Derpy's being changed, nor do I feel that she deserves to be treated this way. She and I may not share views on this subject, but she is still a fellow Brony and I respect her for standing up for what she feels is true and right. She is entitled to do such a thing and for doing so she has my undying respect.

I know that Derpy being changed affected many of us personally, especially for why/how it was done. But Yamino is not to blame here, nor should she be abused verbally in the way that she has. The way these bronies are acting is not "Love and Tolerance", and the fact that so many people have gone out of their way to insult her, comparing her to Hitler, sending her death threats.

This is the exact kind of behavior I was talking about. I feel personally ashamed for the behavior of every single person who commented on her page, many of them members of my group. I sent her a formal apology from the fandom once I found out, and thus decided that this needed to be said.

Anyone further whom is found out harassing, blaming, threatening the Deviant Yamino, or anyone else who shares her opinion on Derpy Hooves, will be suspended from this group for an undisclosed amount of time. I am dead serious. This is an issue I cannot let pass by without serious consequences. In addition, anyone found doing any sort of behavior of this kind toward anyone else, be it a G1 fan, an anti-Brony, someone against Derpy, or even another Brony for ANY reason will have the same punishment.

This is not a ticket for you to go ahead and show me anyone who's "trolled" you or your friends. I'm talking people who made death threats kind of serious, not "trolling". What has transpired here is beyond trolling within the fandom, it's become downright ill will toward one another.

I know that everyone can't agree, and sometimes one can't just settle for someone else's opinion. And even though Derpy has been changed, she will still be OUR Derpy in our hearts and will always be. Think of it this way: As much as it bothers you that Derpy has changed?

It bothers the people who are against Derpy's depiction ten times as much on how she is. Can't you just accept that if it hurts them that badly, then maybe we can keep her in our hearts as a fandom and just accept that? We should be able to accept people who differ in our opinions on all things, and even if we don't, we should never attack them for it. No matter what it is. No one deserves to be treated this way, no matter how much we disagree with them.

[Original post]

Being someone who is not very deeply ingrained in this fandom, I myself can sit on the fence about certain issues. Mainly; how people outside of our fandom see people within. Now, don't get me wrong; I adore MLP-FIM and I enjoy watching it and, if I had the money I'd be buying customs and plushies and whatnot, but even so, it is not what I think about 24/7 like a lot of the fandom does.

For those of you who do not know, most people outside of the Brony/Pegasister fandom see people within it as one or more of these:

-Weirdos who fap to cartoon horses-Overgrown men in their 30s who live in their parents basement and hoard toys-People who sit and scream about love and tolerance but have a hypocritical view of it-Easy Troll targets-Manchildren-Pedophiles

^These are just from what I can tell from viewing what other people who are not in the fandom have said and reacted to. But we all know that these are all misconceptions; or at least most of them.

Which leads me to my actual point: From what I have seen in this fandom, a lot of you seem to be very, very much Troll Bait. Not to say that all of you are; hell, some of you guys even are trolls yourselves, and some of you attempt to be. But most of you are completely innocent in that you react exactly how the troll wants you to.

So I declare that we all make a movement to try and show all the doubters, the pony-phobes, the assholes and the overall trolls who harass fellows in our fandom.

-First of all, if you see someone intentionally trolling? Ignore them. The best thing you can do is just not react. A troll's only reasoning behind what they say is to get a reaction. They oftentimes don't even mean it or know what they're saying even means, just that it will irritate or enrage their target. So don't react. At all. Just ignore them. I know it's hard, but just don't even look at it twice.

-Secondly; If you find someone else has already reacted/replied to a troll, attempt to reason with them privately that it is not worth it to try and "troll back". No matter what you do, bronies, you cannot troll back. It's not possible. The only people who can troll back against trolls, are part-time trolls themselves, or people who know how trolling works enough to be able to ball it up and toss it back without any recoil.

-Thirdly; Never, ever, ever go to anti-pony groups, forums, sites, videos, anything. Ever. These things are like traps. They are there to make you irrationally angry and have you make a fool of yourself, and you can never take it back. Remember that our reputation developed from a seed of truth, so do your best to defy it.

-Finally: Don't troll each other. I've seen this a LOT. Bronies and Pegasisters violently attacking one another, accusing one another and making rage-journals. This is petty and catty. ALL fandoms do this, yes, but I've never seen it happen so very often in one setting before. For people who like the same things, you sure hate one another a lot. I've seen people go and accuse one another of copying them, of stealing, of being a "fake" Brony, of being "sick" because of a certain pairing or whatever that they like.

I've seen people get trashed on by other Bronies and Pegasisters for their favorite character, or their least favorite character, simply because they stated so. I find that a lot of this "Love and Tolerance" thing to be a bit of a façade; I've seen more friction in this fandom than any other, and I've been in some crazy fandoms. [Long ago I was deep into the Naruto fandom, as well as InuYasha and other anime as that; more recently I am in the Transformers fandom, which has a massive fissure splitting the fandom in half solidly; And there's even more that have a ridiculous amount of ridiculous people] But never have I seen so many people disagree over the simplest of things.

So I think we should all strive to be a TRUE loving fandom and just ACCEPT things. Realistically, the only time you should be angry with another Brony or Pegasister is if they are being wholeheartedly irrational, and even then you should at least attempt to stay calm when handling these things. I'm not saying it's impossible not to fight; hell, I have fights with people on DA sometimes too, but I'm not a "true Pegasister" because I don't tolerate certain things, like thievery, lying, trolling, rudeness or rule breaking.

And, even if we don't do it for our own image: At least try and do it for Lauren Faust. She is trolled as much as all of us combined; all of OUR bad rep gets put onto her, and everyone else who has a large hand in the show, and because of that their online life can become hell. And it's our fault.

What this all sums up to, is that you should remember that naysayers are almost always watching. They will always be here looking for reasons to point out how distasteful this fandom is as a whole. So let's not give them anymore fuel, okay?

I approve of this so much! I have friends who have been harassed by bronies to the level where even I felt severely disgusted. I'd personally expect the comunity be better and stronger than that, like this post suggests. All the love to you and Yamino! <3

I have to say, I think I may have to leave the brony fandom now.it has some flaws in numbers; clopping, violence, spam, offensive comments, and even ignorance.For those who obey the advanced guidelines to a mature brony I salute you.I will still have you mature bronies as friends, don't worry. there will be an internet full scale flame war soon, I can feel it. I guess this is goodbye to all you colts and mare, enjoy the rainbooms while they last.

First off, I honestly didn't know about the G4 fans harassing the G1 fans. I really couldn't believe it since I see no real point to it. Are they harassing them because of the quality of the animation.. or the lack of clever writing present in G4? Do they realize that it was made in the 80's when it was still hard as hell to animate and writers were tasked to teach kids about sexual harassment while trying to tie a story together? The sad reality is that if you're an older brony, then you no doubt watched an old cartoon back in that era, and I'm sorry to disappoint you... but GI Joe and He-Man was JUST as dated in its animation and writing. And if you are a younger brony who never grew up with these animations, then what right do you have to judge? Just because you play a lot of WWII shooters doesn't mean you can go to a WWII veteran get-together and talk to them about how harsh Omaha beach was, just because you spent an hour trying to beat that level. The point is, you wouldn't know the appeal of a certain type of media unless you were present in its era.. so just leave it at that.So yeah... G4 guys doing this... please stop...

Now, on to the whole Derpy story.Let me first state that I have no idea what Yamino said or did... in order to keep the innocence and fun of FiM alive in my heart, I tend to delve into the online social aspects of this sub-culture very lightly, and only actually discuss the show and its contents with fellow close personal friends who are also fans. At the end of the day, the term 'brony' is just another sub-culture nickname and underneath it is your general online individual who would act about the same regardless if they wore a shirt with "Brony" on it or a shit with "AC/DC" on it. With that out of the way, it is noted that Yamino was voicing her opinion. I have nothing against that, and strong opinion is in most cases an admiral trait to own. But I fail to see how just making a harmless opinion forces a studio to spend time and money into changing an episode.Usually, for that to happen it must mean someone must have campaigned long and hard for the change, with threats of legal action etc.

At the end of the day, stating "This is wrong, I demand it must change!" without taking into consideration the feelings of those around you does come off as a bit selfish in MY opinion. Wouldn't a better option be to hold a poll first to get a better idea how the majority feels about the topic?But like I said, I don't know what Yamino said or did, so I'm unable to judge.

When I heard of the change, I wasn't even mad... just... disappointed... you could say I just said a lot of "Aaaaaww maaaaaan"' that day.Derpy was a direct acknowledgement from the creators to the fans.. something VERY rare in media. What saddens me is that the creators loved her pretty much the same way the fans loved her, and both got hurt by this in the process. Anybody who makes media for a fanbase will admit it's very annoying putting time and effort into what you create, only to have a 'fan' tell you "I don't like this, you should change it..."The whole point of being a fan of something is accepting what is given to you, whether you like it or not, because it is what the creator envisioned... sure you may not like it, but it sure as hell doesn't make it wrong.And for that reason, I hope this fandom doesn't turn into Star Wars... whereby its creator refuses to expand the lore and story, because his own fans keep telling him he's doing it wrong.

A friend of mine mentioned that they gave her two fundamentals that makes a character... a voice and a name... and in The Last Roundup she was stripped of both... almost making it feel like there was life breathed into her and then taken away in an instant.

While Derpy may forever still be Derpy in our hearts... her change still left many feeling like getting that awesome present for Christmas... only to have it taken away from you after an hour and given to your younger brother because he wouldn't stop crying that he wants it...

_Also_ though I guess the topic of Derpy's eyes has mostly passed: Fans who liked the name 'Ditzy' better basically looked for an excuse to change her names. But instead of changing the _name_ they ended up making Hasbro change _her_ (although only for one episode). Good job with that...

I agree with what you say here. I'm not sure the Friendship is Magic fandom is any worse or better than any other fandom, but bad enough things happen, like this. I think the worst part is the irony. If a person calls themself a fan of this show, why is it so hard for them to follow the simple lessons the shows attempts to teach? It's sad, really. What about "there are different kinds of friends, but that doesn't mean you can't get along with them"? What about a show where six VERY DIFFERENT ponies, with very distinct personalities, are best friends? Where their differences make them clash sometimes, but they always find a way to overcome them and still be friends? That some people completely ignore the message of the show while still claiming to be fans, is shameful. Those people have a hate problem. They feel the need to hate each other even over a show about FRIENDSHIP. They should grow up a little, try to learn good things from FiM and apply them to their lives. There is absolutely no relation between loving something and hating anyone who disagrees.

They just changed Derpy's eyes for that one episode, heck one of the aminators for the show said they're not changing her eyes for good, it was posted on their DA page, and there's a EqD post on it, so stop with the crap...

Well, all I have to say is that I agree with you COMPLETELY and I have jst developed a high respect for you, because it takes alot of maturity to realize the real threat and find a solution, I would give anyone praise to go out there and spread messages like these so that people won't hate/react as much. Thank you for typing this sir/ma'am I very much appreciate this.

The first line of your post sums everything up -- that's the real reason why Derpy was ever an issue. Frankly I'm surprised she lasted as long as she did.

A character like her just can't exist on a children's show where parents and the like are going to be offended by this sort of thing. I like Derpy as much as the next brony, but FiM wasn't made for our demographic. But even if they change her she'll continue to live on in the fandom.

Well it looks like she'll be relegated to just a background character from what it sounds like. Disappointing but not surprising, as long as she's not completely cut from the show I'll be content with that. Sucks yes, but not the end of the world either.

In short, both sides failed in this conflict. Both forgot that having right to your own opinion doesn't entitle you to force it on other people and just demand something. Given their actions, they pretty much called for all the negative stuff they're getting at the moment (sadly, but that's how things work).

And someone should remember the show crew, they putt all their heart and hard work into making this Derpy gift for us, and I think anyone will agree that those are some of the nicest people ever. They never meant anything offensive by that, I can't even imagine how they are feeling now by this whole deal.

Quite frankly i rather like Derpy's new voice although I'm not to pleased that her walleyes are gone, they were one of the reasons i love her so much, not to mention shes like the "wheres waldo" of My Little Pony.

i truly hope Derpy makes future appearances even if her name isn't mentioned or her eyes aren't derpy, I'll still remember her as she was not as shes been changed into VIVA LA DERPY HOOVES!!!

The way people reacted to this made me more sad then when Derpy changed. I still believe in the Brony code of love and tolerance and was shocked by how many Bronies discarded that code. I even wrote a journel relating on the subject [link] I just hope this ends peacefully and not in a nuclear fire of hate.

Thanks for writing this, I pretty much agree with all that you said here. I started writing a comment here in response to this, but it soon developed into a wall of text that I instead went ahead and posted in my journal: [link]

Her character has already beeen established and they changed her to pander to the complaints of certain fringe groups that look for things to be easily offended by. It's ironic really, because changing her look and not calling her by name means that she can't be accepted as different and has to be normalised to fit in based on what other people deem acceptable.

I agree. Insisting a character that isn't "normal" is a mistake, something that needs fixing is much more culturally insensitive than what they had before.

But the original poster brings a good point as well. As insulting as I think this whole turn of events is, sending threatening e-mails/phone calls or whatever to the crew of the show, or to other fandoms is shameful. I can be upset at Hasbro and The Hub for this decision, but not enough to try and make their lives a living hell.

I completely agree with you. I've seen a lot of this going on too, and it really bothers me. Plus, I'm a hippie and a raver, and I try to live by PLUR (peace, love, unity, respect) and Ankh, Bah, Mert (Life, Light, Love). And seeing all of this going on within a fandom that's supposed to be based on love and friendship just makes me sick.

Also, what are your sources for the legal situation against Hasbro? This is the first I've heard of a lawsuit.

And I don't see why Derpy is offensive to anyone (not that they can't be offended; some people obviously are, I just don't see the reasons for it). The fandom loves her the way she is, crossed eyes, clumsy and all. Isn't this a good message?

And this some of the reasons why I don't like to be called a brony, I know it might have offended some people that she got changed. But it's a cartoon show, and most of us here are old enough to survive a few altered things.